2010 iPhone could feature iGroups, a new crowd sharing app

Apple has outlined a potentially new software feature of the iPhone designed to enable users to engage in social groups created on an ad hoc basis and connect the crowd attending large events, such as corporate presentations or concerts.

Originally filed in the third quarter of 2008, Apple’s patent application called “Group Formation Using Anonymous Broadcast Information” has surfaced in the United States Trademark & Patent Office’s (USPTO) public database today.

Similar to NearVerse’s free LoKast app that allows one to share everything on their iPhone without having to create yet another social networking account, Apple also envisioned an ad hoc social media sharing that doesn’t require an account.

Instead, the filing says, users could participate in a social group by authorizing themselves with a token shared over the air, via Bluetooth or WiFi. The Cupertino firm went to great lengths to prove that such a concept has legs, even accompanying the patent application with the drawings representing a dedicated iPhone app called iGroups.

The iPhone people could use this app, Apple observed, to invite each other to a group and exchange their media or access shared information and media assets belonging to a group. A few usage examples that Apple provided include a rock concert and Apple’s own annual developers conference traditionally held during the summer. To overcome a short-range Bluetooth token exchange Apple proposed a unique daisy-chaining solution that could link nearby users to a large group:

The musician’s devices can exchange tokens with devices operated by users in the front row of the stadium. The front row devices can then exchange tokens with devices behind the front row, etc. Thus, token exchanges can occur in a “daisy chain” manner starting from one or more initiating devices. In this example, the musician’s devices would be the group “anchor” that defines the “group.” The “anchor” devices can be strategically placed around the stadium and used to triangulate the location of the users in the stadium based on their respective distances from the “anchor” devices.

According to Pattently Apple, the service will probably work in tandem with MobileMe, providing “some sort of virtual GPS capability to that user so that they could be aware of the locations of others in the group.” The document credits Apple engineers Daryl Low, Ronald Huang, Puneet Mishra, Gaurav Jain, Jason Gosnell, and Jeff Bush with coming up with the idea.